Thursday, April 10, 2008

I have been working myself up to learning to crochet for quite some time now. Well after receiving a copy of the Carol Alexander crochet newsletter that featured Thread Bears I joined the Yahoo group Thread Animals and sat down in front of the computer to learn.

I found a web site that has videos of someone teaching you how to crochet. It's called NexStitch.

It was a life saver for me because try as hard as I do, I just can't pick it up from the books. I'm just a visual learner. Anyway, doing the chains and sample stitches got real boring, real quick so I went through the dozens of patterns I've tucked away and decided to try one. It is of a pig with a chicken on it's back and I did the chicken in one night. Here he is:

Other than my hypercritical judgments, and considering he's my first object from crochet and consisted of mainly single crochet and single crochet decrease I think I did pretty good. The next one will be even better. I've done the body for the piggy and have to finish the rest of him, the the chicken can take his place perched on his back.

On another note, lately I've been on a "give me cake-like substances and give them to me NOW!" binge. The reason is I'm back on prednisone thanks to a flare up of my Crohn's Disease. Prednisone always ramps up my appetite and increases my cravings for sugar immensely. So lately I've been giving in to the cravings. It's like a have a little monkey on my back who starts smacking me in the back of the head when the cravings hit. He's a persistent little monkey and he doesn't quit until he gets his fix.

Here's a blueberry swirl coffee cake I made using the ever popular Bisquick recipe. I made a cherry one last week and this week it was blueberry. In case you're wondering, don't worry I am not the only one eating this or you wouldn't be able to get me out of the door. My glaze kind of pooled in the middle because it wasn't completely cooled (it's the monkeys fault), but the end result was yummy nonetheless.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Yesterday I received the latest issue of Talking Crochet...with Carol Alexander. She talks about a Yahoo group that is for making teddy bears and other animals from thread, needle punch and other sizes of thread and yarn.

They are gorgeous and adorable!! I immediately went to the group and signed up. This has made learning to crochet the number one thing on my list right now and I started tonight I have a disc (somewhere) to teach myself, but I can't find it. So I've found a web site with a lot of how to videos for crochet. As with knitting, the written instructions just aren't cutting it. I need to see someones hands doing it to catch on.

Not to mention there are hundreds of crochet patterns I've been collecting that I want to do (in addition to the knitting and quilting and sewing and cross stitch...I know, I know). There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I can't wait to make my first bear. Some of them are as small as 5/8". That just astounds me.

About Me

If there's one thing I've learned it's that you never know what is going to happen in life.
So here's a new year, a new start and a new commitment to my crafting. I'm hoping it will help me to find my "new normal"